Connect digital engineering to the mission level with STK 12

Take your mission development to the next level with the newest STK version, STK 12. Use the new STK 12 capabilities in Aviator, EOIR, and more to connect digital engineering to the mission level.

STK Aviator

STK Aviator models advanced aircraft flights using performance characteristics of the aircraft. With STK 12, you also have the ability to customize the aircraft characteristics even further.

Extensive improvements to Aviator's underlying physics engine have resulted in fourth generation aircraft modeling that supports real world flight, especially at extreme velocities. Some of the resulting improvements include:

A full 3D gravity model with oblate rotating earth effects, including Coriolis effects, for use with Basic Maneuvers. Propagation uses 6DOF dynamics referenced to the local coordinate frames of the strategies involved.

A round earth model with gravity as a function of altitude for use with standard procedures. This model also includes Coriolis acceleration effects on the apparent accelerations required to fly the specified trajectory. Trajectories are constructed in the ECF frame, and the resulting body frame accelerations account for the higher fidelity models.

Lambert Midcourse guidance strategy is now included in the Aviator Prop Nav feature. This strategy generates and updates the trajectory as the geometry and target/interceptor speeds evolve to command a zero G flyout.

Advanced Fixed Wing tool enhancements give you the flexibility to specify the Thrust-specific fuel consumption (TSFC) in the fuel calibration. TSFC and Thrust contours are also provided on the Flight Envelope alongside the existing Thrust Available, Fuel Flow, and Specific Range contours to facilitate calibration activity.

Aviator now has a rich API via the STK Object Model. You can use the API to automatically configure a mission and generate routes, as well as access the Aviator Catalog to automatically configure aircraft and other catalog items. Documentation and code snippets for Aviator are provided in the STK Programming Help and several example scripts are included in the install.

STK EOIR

A new thin layer, cloud modeling approach that is extremely flexible with inputs for multiple time-dynamic layers and cloud characteristics, such as percent cloud cover, temperature, emissivity, and radiance. You can integrate the model with community standard, cloud modeling files and display them in the 3D graphics window.

STK EOIR has undergone a major architectural overhaul for STK 12. It has moved from a UI plugin architecture to a core part of STK engine. As a core part of STK engine, STK EOIR now provides these benefits: improved performance, and direct automation and parallelization of EOIR parameters. In the future, this architectural overhaul will enable us to provide improvements to usability, computational calculations, as well as better integration with the STK object model, Connect, and STK Analyzer trade studies.

And More

Astrogator. Architectural changes have been made to Astrogator to support improved product interoperability with ODTK. ♦ A new calculation object for the Astrogator Multibody computes the CR3BP Jacobi constant. ♦ To improve load performance, Astrogator satellites now save pass data. ♦ Save/Load performance is greatly improved for long duration scenarios that contain many segments.

Communications and Radar. Expanded interoperability with ANSYS HFSS generated antenna gain patterns. The antenna data files are ffd format complex data sets and may have multiple gain patterns, with each gain pattern corresponds to a different frequency. STK first searches for the pattern with a frequency closer to the signal frequency and uses that pattern to compute the link or graphics gain values. ♦ Cosecant Squared (gain pattern) antenna model now offers an option for the sidelobe type. Choose from a constant value sidelobe or Parabolic, Square Horn or Sinc type. ♦ Antenna, transmitter, receiver, radar, and vehicle RCS contour lines now display on top of terrain in 3D when not displayed at altitude.

Coverage. The System Age of Data is a brand new data metric in the Figure of Merit object. The System Age of Data measures the time elapsed since a Coverage grid point has been seen where simulated collection of grid points is subject to the same sequence of Command-Collect-Downlink events as are used in the System Response Time.

Access. New 3D Tile Mask access constraint enables line of sight computations to account for blockages introduced by 3D Tile tilesets present within any scenario.

Graphics can be just as important as charts and reports when communicating the results of analysis in STK. New in STK 12: Faster terrain loading with the increased size of the default terrain texture cache. ♦ Support for the SteamVT/OpenVR library, which allows compatible Virtual Reality headsets, such as HTC Vive, HTC Cosmos, and Valve Index, to be used natively within STK. ♦ glTF 3D models can now take advantage of the KHR_materials_clearcoat extension.